Patients in hospital or long-term care facilities often reside in beds disposed between safety rails. Although the use of these safety rails provides some degree of protection against the risk of the patient falling off the bed, these safety rails present their own safety concerns. Patients, especially elderly or “developmentally disabled” patients, frequently injure themselves by trapping their heads, arms, legs, or other body parts between the safety rails and the mattress. In extreme cases, deaths have also occurred due to these entrapments.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bed assembly 63 comprised of a mattress 12 and foundation 14, according to the prior art.
Disposed on bed assembly 63 are Bed Safety Rail (BSR) assemblies 48 and 49 respectively, shown in the raised or upper operating position. BSR 48/49 are held in place by two adjustable lateral supports 50 and 51 respectively. Lateral supports 50/51 extend at least the width of mattress 12 and are disposed between mattress 12 and foundation 14. In the lowered or down configuration, the BSR 48/49 are irrelevant to patient safety as the patient, not shown, is generally out of bed when the BSR 48/49 are in this configuration. These prior art BSR assemblies are generally manufactured of metal but could be made of any material and be in any configuration or shape of those BSR assemblies currently available on the open market.
Referring to FIG. 1, the length of BSR assemblies 48/49 respectively, is typically not coextensive with the length of mattress 12. In one embodiment, the differences between these lengths 53, 54, 53a and 54a respectively are from about 2 to 24 inches. As is apparent, these differences create inherent “gaps” that pose a substantial risk to the patient, becoming entrapped between either the headboard 65 or the footboard 66 and the BSR 48/49.
FIG. 2 depicts an end view of the prior art bed assembly 63 of FIG. 1, comprised of mattress 12 (hidden from view), foundation 14 (hidden from view), BSR 48/49, lateral supports 50 (partially shown) and 51 (not shown), headboard 65 (partially obstructed) and footboard 66.
Referring to FIG. 2, inherent gaps 55 and 55a are created between mattress 12 and BSR 48/49. In one embodiment, the reason for this gap is the additional space required to raise and lower BSR 48/49 in their normal function. In this illustration, gap 55/55a is from about 1–3 inches. Another reason for gap 55/55a is the limited adjustment capabilities of supports 50/51.
These “gaps” pose a substantial risk to the patient, becoming entrapped between the mattress 12 and the BSR 48/49.
Degrees and severity of entrapment can vary from patient to patient depending on several factors. These factors include but are not limited to height, weight, cognitive function, and level of ambulatory ability.
Entrapment can involve numerous body parts including but not limited to hands, feet, arms, legs, torso, neck, or head.
Injuries sustained also vary according to the type and length of entrapment. Bruising, sprains and breaks would result from more minor events. More serious injuries up to and including, but not limited to death can also occur in cases of prolonged events involving choking or suffocating entrapments.
These safety concerns have given rise to a multiplicity of lawsuits against hospitals and long-term care facilities. Thus, within the past ten years, the Long Island, N.Y. Developmental Disabilities Service Office has been sued at least twice for injuries and or deaths resulting from a patient's entrapment with a safety rail assembly.
In one care facility, located in Schenectady, N.Y., the management of such facility has discontinued the use of safety rail assemblies in some cases, and now has those patients sleeping on mattresses that have been placed upon the floor. As is apparent, this alternative arrangement presents its own set of problems.
It is therefore an object of this invention to eliminate or greatly reduce the risk of entrapments and injuries sustained therefrom. Preferably, the invention, through proper implementation and monitoring, will eliminate the need for BSR entirely in some cases, or substantially limit the need for their use in others.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a mattress assembly that can be used with or without existing safety rails and which will minimize the likelihood of patient entrapment that exists with the prior art assemblies.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for retrofitting existing beds so as to eliminate the safety problems set forth above, without having to replace the entire bed unit.
This and other objects of the invention will be described more fully below.